Please Note: Quick Review Purchases are Non-Refundable
1) Quick CV Review—–$200 The Quick CV Diagnostic gives you the quick-and-dirty chance to make sure your CV works, in time for fast approaching job openings.Your CV is the core of your professional identity in academia. And yet, misunderstanding of its proper organization, form, and principles is rampant. Have you read my post, “Dr. Karen’s Rules of the CV”? Are you still worried about whether you followed all the rules correctly, and have a CV that showcases your research and teaching to the best advantage? If so, sign up for the Quick CV Review. I’ll give your CV a review within 2 business days, US Pacific time (business days only; this does not include weekends), show you anything that deviates from the basic principles of effective CV organization, and correct for errors in tone and style. I pay particular attention to anything that makes you look “Like a Grad Student”—a particular pitfall of many ABD and new Ph.D. CVs. In addition, I check for issues of appearance and formatting, organization, phrasing and word choice, validity and completeness of headings and subheadings, and overall “feel” and message. At the end of the Review, your CV will showcase your qualifications and accomplishments, and make a completely professional impression.
Note that all Quick Reviews require you to overhaul your document following examples and a model before submitting it for your edit.
Quick CV Review—$200
2) Quick Job Letter Review —$250 The Quick Job Letter Review gives you a quick-and-dirty chance to guarantee your job letter works, in time for fast-approaching job openings. This Package includes: i) The “Professor’s Guide to a Job Letter That Doesn’t Suck,” a 34-page Guide that features:
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- Dr. Karen’s blog post “Why Your Job Letter Sucks (And what you can do to fix it)”
- Dr. Karen’s blog post “How to Tailor a Job Letter (without flattering, pandering or begging)”
- Several other blog posts that focus on specific problem areas for job letters
- 4 sample job letters from 4 successful former clients (their first and their final drafts–so 8 documents in total), with extensive commentary from Dr. Karen pinpointing the revisions and edits that transformed a bad letter into a winning one. These examples are not available anywhere else on the blog, even for regular clients.
- A personal final review of your letter Once you’ve overhauled your letter after reviewing the above material, you send in the revised doc for one final read-through, within 2 business days, US Pacific time (business days only; this does not include weekends), with edits and suggestions for tone, style, word choice, effectiveness, brevity, staying on message, and overall impression.
Quick Job Letter Review — $250
3) Quick Teaching Statement Review—$200 The Teaching Statement is the hardest of all the job documents to write well. The genre is rife with misunderstanding, and one of the most common pitfalls is a kind of breathless emotionalism that you think communicates passion but in fact communicates a kind of adjunct or grad student desperation. Sorry, but it’s true. In this Quick Review I send you to the blog post, The Dreaded Teaching Statement: 8 Pitfalls, for you to do a first overhaul of your TS to be one page in length, and filled with the kind of substance and evidence that communicates your real abilities in the classroom. I then provide a single final edit to refine its message and professionalism. As always, a response is guaranteed within 2 business days, US Pacific time (business days only; this does not include weekends).
The Quick Teaching Statement Review—$200
4) The Quick Research Statement Review — $200 In this Quick Review I send you to three blog posts, Dr. Karen’s Rules of the Research Statement, The Golden Rule of the Research Statement, and Do. Or Do Not. There Is No Try. I ask you to compose a concise, 2-page version of your research statement that focuses entirely on the facts of your academic research and jettisons emotionalism and any narratives of your research process, the two greatest pitfalls of this genre. You will focus on what you researched, concluded, and published, and what you’ll be doing next, with a brief statement of its contribution to the field. I then provide a single final edit to refine its message and professionalism, and to remove any aura of graduate student insecurity or dependency. As always, a response is guaranteed within 2 business days, US Pacific time (not including weekends or holidays). **Please note that this Research Statement Review is for job application research statements and not for postdoc or grant research proposals, which require a different writing approach. The Quick Review option for short postdoc/grant proposals is below. **
5) The Quick Diversity Statement Review—$200 In this Quick Review I illuminate the mysteries of what is fast becoming the 5th required document of the academic job search. I provide a version of Chapter 38 from my book, The Professor Is In: The Essential Guide to Turning Your Ph.D. Into a Job, as well as other examples of the genre. I ask you to compose a concise, 2-page version of a diversity statement that demonstrates how you promote the entry, representation, and success of historically underrepresented populations in your teaching, research and service. There are many angles of approach to this topic, regardless of your own racial/ethnic/gender/etc. subject position, and the information provides prompts to help you develop your principles and examples. I help you avoid common errors, which include trite saccharine platitudes and good intentions, and self-juvenilizing autobiography. As always, a response is guaranteed within 2 business days, US Pacific time (not including weekends or holidays).
The Quick Diversity Statement Review – $200
6) The Quick Dissertation Abstract Review – $200
In this Quick Review I give you information about how to construct an effective dissertation abstract, providing a template with a sentence-by-sentence breakdown of the organization, and models to use as reference. Many dissertation abstracts go too deeply into minutiae and fail to summarize the topic, context and import effectively. Others stay at too general a level and fail to provide specific chapter descriptions. This QR will ensure that your abstract provides both the general and specific content that is needed, within an appropriate page length. After you complete your overhaul using the material I provide, you send me the document and I promise an edit within 2 business days, US Pacific time (not including weekends and holidays).
7) The Quick Syllabus Review – $200 In this Quick Review I give you information about how to construct an effective course syllabus, from an engaging title to the all-important description, and including the legalistic fine print, as well as ways to conceptualize an appropriate reading load and week-by-week pacing of topics. We pay particular attention to the appeal of the course for the undergraduate or graduate audience. Most new Ph.D.s write syllabi that are overly narrow, jargony, boring, and too embedded in your own private theoretical or topical preoccupations. A good syllabus for the job market will instead show a broad appeal to a wide range of students, proving that you know how to reach students where they are, and engage them in the field or discipline as a whole (not just try to harangue them about your dissertation topic, for example). The QR attends to institutional suitability as well – a good syllabus for an Ivy League will look different than one for a regional teaching college. This QR will ensure that your syllabus is engaging, appropriate, well-paced, and persuasive. After you complete your overhaul using the material I provide, you send me the document and I promise an edit within 2 business days, US Pacific time (not including weekends and holidays).
The Quick Syllabus Review – $200
8) The Quick Grant/Postdoc Proposal Review – $450 In this Quick Review I provide instructions and models for a 2-5 page grant or postdoc proposal. (Longer proposals cannot be accommodated in this service). You study the rules of Dr. Karen’s Foolproof Grant Proposal Template, and get access to an exclusive document of excellent client models (shared with permission of former clients). These show you how to overhaul your own document so that the all-important first page constructs a compelling “hero narrative” that shows the project is significant, legitimate, and viable. Please note for this product you MUST purchase/own my book, The Professor Is In: The Essential Guide to Turning Your Ph.D. Into a Job, as the entire Part VIII of that book is dedicated to my newest and most complete advice and models for grant-writing. You can get an ebook version instantly from Amazon for about $10. You will be directed to Amazon upon purchase of this product! After you complete your overhaul using the material I provide, you send me the document and I promise an edit within 2 business days, US Pacific time (not including weekends and holidays).
The Quick Grant/Postdoc Proposal Review – $450
